Juggling Jingoism
by Tsume Yuki
Summary: In which Lu Ten survives the attack at Ba Sing Se and somehow ends up the Avatar's new father-figure.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

There're footsteps. He's discovered Monk Gyatso's corpse, found the carcasses of the Fire Nation soldiers. He's accepted he's the last of his people.

Still, Aang spins around with blatant hope blooming in his chest. Only, it's not an air bender.

The figure is young but clearly a woman, not a girl like Katara. Katara who is off getting supplies with Sokka. Katara who has the same dark skin and clear blue eyes as this woman does.

They stare at each other for a single moment, Aang with his staff half way between being raised and half way between lowered, the woman with her hands up and water pooling at the edge of her flask. He can feel her eyes scan over him in the same manner he does hers. She's, she's clearly Water Tribe. And she's a water bender too! That's it, they're sorted! If they bring the woman along, they won't have to go to the Northern Water Tribe and can spend a bit longer seeing the sights, finding the animals, like… like the ring-tailed flying lemurs. The only thing that seems to have survived the Fire Nation's attack.

Aang's breath gets caught in his throat and his eyes burn again as he desperately tries to push the thought down.

"Are you a water bender?!"

"I- yes? I am. Are you an air bender?"

* * *

**I**

_Lu Ten wakes up. He doesn't expect to, not after the way the rocks has crushed his body. Not after the way the avalanche had rocketed towards him and his division, the earth-bending filth who were so determined to cling to their outdated ways. No, Lu Ten hadn't expected to wake up._

_The pain (the breath-stealing, heart-burning, mind-searing pain) isn't a shock. His whole body feels as if it has been pulverised, trampled by a Komodo rhino and left with the broken bones. It is a miracle he can feel his legs. If he can feel them, that means there's the slightest chance he could walk again. Even if those boulders had been so large, so daunting, refusing to be blasted away even by his strongest fire-punches-_

_"Calm down, soldier, you're not on the battlefield anymore." The accent is not Fire Nation. While not too worrisome given the colonies, it still doesn't change he fact he is in the presence of an unknown, injured to the point he cannot defend himself. His legs are broken, that much he can tell by the fact that, when he moves them, they call out in pain, refuse and rebel against his intentions. He is a sitting turtleduck and the only reassurance he has that he won't be further harmed is the knowledge his captor/healer could have already done so. _

_"Don't move your legs, or your right arm. They're broken and in make-shift casts at the moment. Drink this, it'll help with the pain." _

_He cannot see much in this darkness, only the vague shape of the woman that attends to him. A cup, carved wood with the edges sanded down, is pressed to his lips and Lu Ten drinks up the liquid as the desert does; greedily, unsatisfied. _

_"Sleep. Recover your strength."_

* * *

Sitting on the floor of the Southern Air Temple, the very one they have spent the last five months in without so much as a hint at any other human life, Alasie watches as Aang the air bender (the avatar? She dares not ask yet) makes a glass marble spin about above his hands, weaving back and forth between his fingers. Alasie has responded in kind, water spilling around her own hands, seeping in and out like a meandering river, slow and steady and controlled.

Lu Ten sits beside her, fire in his palm and disbelief in his eyes. She's not surprised. Part of her feels as if this is all some unexpected dream, as if she will wake up and it will all have been nought but a figment of her imagination.

But, despite the lack of any kind of air bending presence in the world for near a hundred years, Aang sits before them. He's watching the water in her palm, the fire that snakes between Lu Ten's fingers with wide grey eyes and twitching fingers. He's caught his marble now, rolling it between forefinger and thumb.

"So, I need a water bending teacher and a fire bending teacher-" Bingo.

Alasie says nothing for it is not her decision to make. They have a plan, a way of stopping the war, a deadline that is fast approaching with the impending return of the comet. It had all bee Lu's idea. She is just here to help, to heal. To be a friend. So, she looks to her closest companion, keeping one ear focused on the avatar as he continues to waffle on, hastily explaining himself.

Lu Ten looks as if he has been hit rather sharply over the head, as if he is struggling to wrap the concept of a living avatar around his world-wide view. Around his plans. There is an awful, awkward silence that lingers between them as hey look between one another; Aang with naked hope in his eyes; Alasie with what she prays is soft understanding; Lu Ten with the same shrewd calculation that's been present ever since he turned his back on the things he has been taught.

"Alasie is no water bending master. She's self-taught, so you will still have to travel North. I… I am a fire bending master, however. If it is what you want, Avatar Aang, then I would be honoured to be your teacher."

* * *

**II**

_His saviour is a savage. _

_Lu Ten watches her with cautious eyes, watches the water that responds to her every gesture. He is not the only patient here, though he is the only Fire Nation national. All the others are Earth Kingdom, one a soldier, the rest refugees. _

_He watches as his saviour sees to them all, treats them equally, the soldier and the screaming child receiving the same treatment. Glowing water covers their cuts, their bumps and bruises, dissolving all the discolouration from the skin, smoothing on the cut until only a neat scar remains. _

_What is different is that none of the others are as injured as he; they are not required to stay within this little farmhouse, are offered well-wishes in their travels as the savage leads them to the door. _

_It is only once the room is empty that she returns to him. _

_"Good morning. It is good to see you are awake. You have a broken femur in your right leg, the same in your left but with the additional bonus of a broken fibula. Do not remove the casts; they are the only thing keeping your bones in position as they heal. As for your arm, it's the radius that's broken. Coupled with your bruised ribs, you won't be getting up for a while." She wrings out a rag here, water droplets trickling down the edges of the cloth before she places it atop his head. The relief that sweeps through him at the cool touch is as uncomfortably well-received as it is unnatural. Given the current temperature of the room, the bowl water should not have been this cold which means the woman is bending near him. _

_"My name is Alasie. I'm a trained healer from the Northern Water Tribe which means when I say you'll probably be able to walk on these legs in two weeks, it's a pretty accurate estimation. Do you have a name, soldier?"_

_Her words are not reassuring. Though it is known that water is the only element with the ability to heal injuries and sickness, Lu Ten has little trust in what the savages probably pass as an education. He has even less trust in the woman's ability to keep her mouth shut should she find out that the Prince of the Fire Nation is who occupies her farmhouse. _

_"Lee. My name is Lee." There. Can't get any more basic than that name. Lee also comes with the additional benefit of not belonging to one nation in particular. While Lu Ten's colouring is painfully obvious, that does not necessitate his homeland. Though it pains him to reflect on the early days on the crusade, he is no fool; he knows exactly what the older generation of fire-benders got up to in the Earth Kingdom villages they conquered. It is not unusual to see children and young adults with fire nation colouring, dressed in the peasant clothing of the Earth Kingdom. It is an uncomfortable truth, but one that serves to keep him alive in this moment. _

_Alasie the savage trained healer hums, summoning up a shallow blob of water that snakes through the air towards his right leg. He tenses in spit of himself as the liquid wraps around his thigh, ready for the pain. Instead, it is a delightful coolness that seeps into his skin, that smooths his aches and pains. _

_ "I will try fetching you more medicine, but, for now, your recovery is looking promising, Lee."_

* * *

"Katara! Katara, look! I've got a water bending teacher and a fire bending master to teach me!"

Sokka spits out the handful of nuts he'd been inhaling. As her brother hacks and coughs away in the background, Katara shoots to her feet as worry burns through her, all too aware of just what Aang has said. A water bending teacher is great, better than she could have ever hoped for.

In truth, Katara had been under the impression that she'd never get to leave the South Pole, would forever be doomed to bending water with only her own self-made, jerky movements to rely on. Getting to leave, getting the travel the world with Aang the actual Avatar (and her brother but that's hardly exciting) is a dream come true. She hadn't dared to hope that they'd meet a water bender before they reached the North Pole.

That's not the part that worries her. It's the 'fire bending master' part that she's feeling sick over.

"Aang! You can't trust them! A fire bender!" Sokka makes a series of vague gestures that she's relatively sure is suppose to express the fire bender's untrustworthiness. "A master fire bender!"

An adult fire bender.

Katara shrinks into herself at the sight of the two people that stand beside Aang, even if part of her longs desperately to go and speak with the woman who is clearly Water Tribe. They're adults; it's clear in the curves the woman possesses, the broad stretch of the man's shoulders, the thinness of their faces. The woman is smiling, her fingers linked with the man's, her other hand offering them a smooth wave. The man doesn't smile, but nor does he frown. Instead, he looks upon them with curious eyes before he turns back to Aang.

"Please tell me you have some form of adult supervision," he says and his voice is deep. Are they supposed to travel with adults? It makes perfect sense that the people to teach Aang the elements would be adults; mastering an element takes time, after all, and people grow as time passes. Katara has just never equated the concept of adults to the idea of one joining their group. Sure, they've only been on their own for three days, but it'd been three days of freedom.

On the other hand, she won't have to be in charge of everything anymore.

"We do now!" Aang chirps, bouncing forwards and grinning up at the man, as if he's not within two feet of a dangerous fire bender. Said dangerous fire bender claps the Avatar on the shoulder, flicking his ear in the process. He then turns to the woman who looks at him with a stern, serious face.

"Lu Ten, I do believe we've just adopted three kids."

Sokka chokes again, waving his arms around rapidly and loudly proclaiming that they 'have a dad' and 'don't need adopting, thank you very much'. 'Lu Ten' ignores him, gives them both a glance over with brilliant amber eyes, before he turns back to the woman.

"Best to get some practice in for the future then, Alasie."

Katara's not to sure what that's supposed to mean, but from the stunned look on the woman, Alasie's face, that's probably for the best.

* * *

**I honestly don't know if I'll ever write more for this, (it's just a lot of drabble really) but here you go. **

Tsume  
xxx


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

.

**III**

_His life falls into the routine from then on. Lu Ten would sleep as often as his body would allow, wake whenever his body demanded it. Sometimes the savage was there, sometimes she was not. Sometimes it was day, sometimes it was night. Time blends together for him, merging into one wild animal he doesn't have a hope of taming in his current state. He wonders how the siege is progressing in his absence, wonders if his father is aware of his survival or morns the loss of his only son. It is that thought alone that pushes him to listen to the savage's words and not just dismiss them out of turn. _

_Uncultured she may be, but this Alasie must have some idea of what she is doing. A week has gone by and already his legs, his arm feels better. Years ago, they had captured the water benders of the South Pole, aiming to induct them as healers, aware that such a boost would ensure the well being of their troops. It hadn't happened as they expected it; one facility had resulted in the slaughter of many good men and women when a water bender miraculously got free; the Fire Lord, his grandfather, had responded in turn. _

_There are no more water benders in Fire Nation territory now. _

_It is a shame, for Lu Ten can feel his strength returning; he has been able to summon up the will power to move his flimsy mattress (little more than a blanket really) so that the morning sun may grace his skin as it kisses up against the one window in this place. _

_"How are you feeling today?" Alasie kneels beside him, feet folded beneath her thighs, a bowl of something warmth grasped between her hands. It takes a great effort to raise himself into a seat position, but the stretch does his withering muscles good. Soon enough he is seated, spoon balanced between the fingers of his left hand. The first few meals had been messy occurrences but Lu Ten had persisted with his insistence he feed himself. Slowly, he is beginning to master his left hand, unfamiliar and awkward as it is. The broth today has a few sliced vegetables residing within, a small helping of meat cuts too. Peasant food; nothing like the grandeur of the Fire Nation banquet; their soldiers eat better than this. _

_"Better than yesterday."_

_"You say that every day."_

_"It is the truth." _

_Alasie smiles, tucking one strand of brown hair behind her ear. Her hair is cut in a strange, appropriately savage fashion. All but two front bangs are sheered short, an inch short of gracing her shoulder blades. Some days, the bangs are pulled back into a tiny bun that rests atop her head, other days (such as today) they hang free to frame her cheeks. _

_"A good thing then; by my estimations, you're healing up well. We'll be able to start physical therapy soon." _

_Physical what?_

* * *

"Right, let's have a look at your supplies then."

Alasie rummages through the saddle of the… flying bison, the young waterbender, Katara, beside her. The two had, perhaps wisely, ushered Sokka off to pilot the great beast whilst they inspected the food supplies and any other miscellaneous items. Lu Ten can recite the supplies that he shares with Alasie from memory, forever adjusting what they currently have to had as they add to it or use things. Now that is all stored on the back of the saddle as they… fly through the air.

No, he's still not managed to wrap his head around it. Just as he is only beginning to accept the child before him is indeed the Avatar.

Those shoulders are awfully thin to carry the weight of the world on them.

"So, Lu Ten, when can I start firebending?!" The kid gazes up at him, all big grey eyes and wide smile. There aren't many children that willingly go around without any hair; Lu Ten isn't used to a kid whose face is dominated by adorable puppy eyes. Luckily, he has memories of a very impatient little cousin who desperately wanted to remain in the same fighting bracket as his sister. But that is a thought for later, later in the next few years, when the war is said and done and Fire Lord Ozai is dead for his crimes.

Lu Ten is sure his uncle had something to do with his grandfather's death (not that the world would consider him a great loss) even if he has no proof. Regardless, the list of war atrocities his uncle has committed is enough to warrant his death without that added on the end.

"Why does fire burn, Aang?" Lu Ten asks, holding his hand out towards the boy and allowing a small fire to flicker to life. He keeps it protected from the wind in the clawed cage of his fingers, curling half way into the fist. It flutters there in the centre of his palm, a tiny heartbeat on he can feel.

Aang leans in close, brows knocking together and puckering the skin above his nose. The motion pulls ever so slightly at the tattoo that sits atop his brow, the evidence he has mastered his native element.

"Er, the air?"

"Yes. Fire needs three things to burn. Fuel, heat and what we once thought was air, but is actually just an element of air. Something called oxygen. It is what keeps us alive, as well as all the animals in the world."

Aang stares up at him, a slow series of nods showing he's paying Lu Ten all his attention.

"A firebender supplies the heat and the fuel, which is our chi. But the oxygen needs to be there. It's why we can't lit a fire underwater; the water separates the fire from oxygen. As such, the first lesson of firebending, is to work on your breathing." The avatar groans, as many generations of firebenders before him have done and Lu Ten can't help but laugh, cheeks lifting into a warm smile as he claps the boy on one shoulder.

"Slow and steady, Avatar Aang. Fire is the most dangerous element. If you feed it too much, if you rush, chances are good you'll end up with a wildfire which is the last thing you want."

Lu Ten leads the avatar through a series of breathing exercises, politely ignoring the way the Water Tribe boy continues to offer him suspicious, hard glares. There's loss there, an old one that undoubtedly still aches today. He's recognised it in the faces they've passed by over the years, heard it in screams and sobs and pleas. It never makes it any easier to deal with, time and experience doesn't give him the knowledge on how to help deal with it because people learn differently. That's just how it is.

"Okay, we have a full ledger of food and have ratioed it accordingly," Alasie announces and both she and Katara shuffle back towards the front of the saddle on hands and knees. The only one of them currently brave enough to stand upon the saddle is there resident airbender and that most certainly has something to do with the fact that he can fly right back up should he fall off. Perhaps after a few more hours, Lu Ten will feel confident enough in his footing (in the bison) to stand himself. But not right now.

"What are your goals, Avatar Aang?" Obviously, there's still waterbending and earthbending to learn; the kid doesn't even look like his voice has started cracking yet; he can't possibly be the sixteen years that an avatar is supposed to be when told of their destiny. Clearly the Air Nomads had (rightly) felt that something was going to go wrong. He pushes that age-old shame aside with well-practiced ease, instead focusing on the avatar. The avatar who has whipped out a map with locations circled in bright red ink.

"Well, I really wanna ride the hopping llamas, then we can surf on the backs of giant koi fish, and then-"

"Aang," Alasie interrupts, her voice soft and warm and just a touch cautious, "I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation." Oh Agni.

Settling back against the saddle, Lu Ten draws his scarf a little further up his face until his chin is nestled in the red fabric, the harsh winter's wind no longer chopping against the skin. He's not the best at cushioning reality; that's something best left to Alasie. A healer thing, he assumes. Though he's never actually asked, Lu Ten is relatively certain all healers receive some kind of training on how to break bad news to their patients.

* * *

**IV**

_Physical therapy, it turns out, is reintroducing his useless muscles to the concept of movement once again. The whole experience is infuriating, as if he has been trapped within his own body, no longer able to truly control his own actions to the extent he should be. _

_It is at this point that he learns, prior to waking, he was unconscious for three weeks. It has been a grand total of five weeks since the attack, since he was injured. He has heard nothing of the siege, nothing of how Ba Sing Se still stands tall. No one who walks into Alasie's little farmhouse speaks of the war, as if they live in a bubble that would be penetrated by the mean mention of it. The one time he had dared to ask Alasie about the state of the world, she had looked upon him in quite a serious manner and stated he could not ask those kinds of questions here. _

_There had been fear in her eyes that day. _

_Fear resides within his stomach at this moment in time, half-submerged in water as he is. Alasie had stated being within the pool would only aid his recovery, that the body's natural buoyancy would ensure he need not put all his weight down upon his near-healed legs. Lu Ten is rather under the impression that it is so she can immobilise him completely should he show a hint of flame, a single flicker of fire. She doesn't know he is a bender, has not asked and Lu Ten has not offered. _

_He still goes by Lee._

_So he complies, he works through all the motions that Alasie demonstrates for him. He'll never admit to the way his muscles burn, the way it tires him so quickly. Six weeks ago, he'd been in the prime of his health, physically fit and able. He could scale a flag-pole in less than a minute, could run a mile faster than the average man. He could hold a flame for hours without it extinguishing. _

_Now, he cannot get through the exercises a savage's healer sets him without a burning pain in his limbs. _

_He'll never make his way back to his father in this state._

* * *

Well, that sucked. Having to explain to a twelve-year-old kid that, 'hey, there's a war going on, we've not really got time to stop for fun things like hopping llama rides when there're people out their dying' is not how she imagined her day going today. But by the moon spirit, these kids clearly need an adult to steer them; it's painfully obvious her Southern cousins have never experienced life outside the pole. Katara had understood the basic concept of rationing, but it hadn't occurred to her how to organise the food by rate of rot now that there was no snow to preserve things.

And Aang… she doesn't quite know where to start on that one. He's young. So painfully young. Alasie would love nothing more than to go with the kid to see the hopping llamas, to ride them alongside him (because it does sound like fun). But she's also seen the warfront. She's healed soldiers who'll never walk again and she's lost patients. She's seen the rampant suffering alongside Lu Ten, the very thing that had opened his eyes to the damage the Fire Nation's quest for supremacy has caused.

"This one we can visit." Lu Ten taps at one of the circles on the map, instantly drawing Aang from his shell-shocked funk in order to peer up at the firebender with wide, hopeful eyes.

"Really?"

"Really?" Alasie parrots, quiet as a whisper so that only the intended recipient can hear her. Even Sokka is peering over his shoulder at them, one eyebrow raised on his forehead and an unimpressed frown on his face. It's an expression she can read clear as day. It seems to say 'really? Just one glimpse of watery eyes and you cave like a poorly built igloo on a summer's day'.

"Do you know what island that is, Aang?"

"It's Kyoshi Island," the avatar states matter-of-factly, before he brightens with understanding. "As in Avatar Kyoshi! Maybe there'll be something there that can help me!"

As Aang muscles his way onto Appa's head to take the quite literally reins, pushing a very cautious but equally disgruntled Sokka back onto the saddle, Alasie shuffles a bit closer to the firebender, sinking into his side as he ups the heat output. There's something to be said for being cold and having a firebender close at hand.

"You're a soft touch," she murmurs, cheek pressing up against his shoulder, even as he curls an arm around her back to draw her closer to his side.

"Yeah. Guess I am."

* * *

**Oh look, more.**

Tsume  
xxx


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

.

"There it is, Kyoshi Island, just to the right."

"Oh, thank the spirits! You know, I wasn't too sure about allowing Muttonchops aboard, but if he can read a map like that, I suppose we can put up with his Fire Nationieness." Sokka gives a vague wave in Lu Ten's direction and Aang stiffens a giggle as the firebender scrunches up his nose in mock offence.

"Muttonchops," he repeats, bemused, turning to look at Alasie. Despite the fact they're adults, despite the fact Lu Ten is a firebender and 'the enemy' (as Sokka puts it), Aang likes them. Alasie is calm, like the ocean on a night, still and welcoming. Lu Ten's gives him the same feeling but it's on the other end of the spectrum. He's all cosy campfire at the end of a long day, warm and comforting. And… and they're both serious. They're not like Sokka and Katara. Don't get Aang wrong, he thinks the Water Tribe siblings are brilliant. However… they've lived in the South Pole their whole life; they don't know much of what is going on in the world. And Aang, Aang had taken their lack of knowledge for gospel. Had assumed he'd be able to visit all the locations he'd been dreaming about for the past few years.

Alasie had made it painstakingly clear exactly what it's like out there and Aang just, just doesn't have time to ride hopping llamas. Not until he's restored balance to the world. But, he's only a kid. Which is why having Lu Ten and Alasie is perfect. Because they're adults. Adults who seem to know what they're doing; Lu Ten has instantly taken over navigation and set a course for the North Pole, already marking out villages that would be a safe stop on the way. Alasie has taken stock of what they've got on Appa and has already put a plan together for what they should be doing when they reach land.

Aang is the avatar. It means a great deal of responsibility. He's glad he's got a pair of adults to sort out everything while he comes to terms with what he's got to do.

"Is there something wrong with my sideburns?" Lu Ten questions, his fingertips brushing through the short hairs that bracket his cheeks.

"Well, I didn't want to say anything…" Alasie trails off, a sly smile on her face and Aang dissolved into helpless giggles.

"You don't like my sideburns?"

Seated upon Appa's head, Sokka snorts, cocking his head back to assess Lu Ten's appearance.

"It'd probably help with the whole 'good firebender' thing if you dropped the muttonchops."

"Oh, for Agni's sake."

* * *

**V**

_The day everything changes occurs at sunset. _

_It is summer, the familiar heat scorching his neck in welcome, the sun powering his every pore, energising him. If Alasie noticed had he was awake with the sun each morning, she makes no mention of it. _

_With tentative steps, Lu Ten walks from the house, doing his best to ignore the stiffness in his muscles, the way they cramp and attempt to persuade him rest would be wise. The sun is setting in the west, soon to rise again over his homeland. Lu Ten misses it as he would a limb. The spices of the food, the humidity of the air, the seas of red and black cloth. All familiar sights that he has not laid eyes upon in near two years now. It could be two years for all he knows; the actual date is something of a mystery to him now. Isolated in Alasie's farmhouse, surrounding by nothing but countryside; he's not even sure if he is in Ba Sing Se or residing outside of the famed walls. _

_He doesn't know why Alasie had been so insistent he not ask after the war. It had only been the naked fear in her blue eyes that had stalled his questions further. _

_The pond within which he completes his physical therapy is occupied at the moment by his healer. She has stripped down to what clearly passes as savage bathing suits; all white fabric clothing her upper half and her lower half, only the toned strip of her dark stomach separating the two. But that doesn't hold his attention. His focus is on the way she moves, how the water whips out in the air with a low snap, coiling back in at her direction. _

_It is perhaps the clumsiest movement he has witnessed her perform so far. _

_As the sun casts the thin strands of her bangs with a golden glow, Lu Ten can only watch in stupefied wonder. Alasie moves as if she has seen the action before, but never been instructed. And it's because she hasn't been. It's evident in the tightness of her limbs, the stiffness of her shoulders, the unstable stance she has adopted. _

_The Northern Water Tribe are fools, Lu Ten realises. They only teach their women healing, not how to defend themselves. Behind those great big walls of ice, only the men can fight. Only the men could stop an invasion. He feels like laughing, could write a letter to his grandfather this very instance. The Northern Water Tribe would have been conquered quicker than Ba Sing Se. The fools have halved their number of potential fighters and for what? Tradition? How absurd. It's almost unthinkable. The only reason he can believe it is because he's witnessing the very truth before him. _

_Alasie, the savage of the Water Tribe who has healed him, cannot fight. No matter how much she is clearly trying to remedy that. It's impossible without instruction, without a partner to practice on._

_And, it is in that moment that Lu Ten realises what he must do to repay his debt. A voice that sounds achingly like his father insists upon it. _

_He has to teach her self-defence, has to teach her the basics in return for the healing she has offered him. It will keep him from returning to the war effort, from returning to father as swift as he would wish. But he knows that if he doesn't, if he just leaves the water bender, that when he comes face with his father, he'll know. He'll know he has not repaid a debt (a debt to which his life has been saved), and he will be disappointed. _

_Lu Ten is a dutiful son. A loyal son. He knows what his father would want from him._

.

_He retreats inside, returning with a sheet of paper and a stick of charcoal. First, he'll need a plan of action on just how to fix Alasie's… everything. They'll progress from there. _

* * *

With his wore boots lying abandoned in the sand and trousers rolled up to avoid the ocean's lapping waves, the newly shaven Lu Ten stares out to sea. The wind blows across his face and for the first time in years, it moves smoothly across his cheekbones, unchallenged. Out in the sea, the Avatar clings to a giant golden fish, no doubt laughing away. If his mouth isn't getting filled with seaspray, that is. On the golden sands, Sokka hunches over the map, a pucker to his brows and a thoughtful frown on his lips. It's quite sad to see these children, to recognise just how far reaching the Fire Nation's greed has stretched. They have no mother, a father off fighting in the war, and it is his great-grandfather who is directly responsible for it all. Lu Ten himself had once fought for it all, unaware and unknowing of the true consequence of his actions.

He'll spend the rest of his life making up for that.

The water slams into his face.

Spluttering, Lu Ten wipes at his eyes, doing his best to ignore the sting of salt. The culprit stands a little way off, a slight shiver to her limbs from the exposure to the winter's ocean. As a sensible firebender, Lu Ten is more than capable of keeping himself warm in the chilly waters. The silly waterbender is a different matter.

"I'm not a willing participant for your little waterbending teaching sessions," Lu Ten muses, taking a step towards the woman. Alasie takes a step back, all coy smiles and doe-eyes. As if he can't feel the watery limb that's wrapping its way around his leg. He's all for letting Katara learn, but he will most certainly not be playing the willing test dummy. He'd had enough of that while Alasie was learning.

"Lu, why is it that the Fire Nation never bothered with Kyoshi Island? Given its history, it's one of the most likely places the avatar could have hidden, but there's no sign of a firebender having ever stepped foot here. Excluding present company, of course." Alasie smiles, calling the watery tail back to her, making it wiggle through the air as it detached from his leg, much to Katara's amusement.

Alasie makes a good point though. Why was it they'd never settled a colony down on Kyoshi Island? Something tickles at the back of his mind; there's something he should remember here, but for the life of him, Lu Ten can't quite pin-point it.

Until he shoots another glance towards Aang and spots the fin that is most certainly not an Elephant Koi's.

Shit.

* * *

**VI**

_It's cute how the fire bender thinks she had no idea of what he is up until he had announced it. _

_Alasie sits on the most comfortable cushion this borrowed farmhouse has, listening to Lee outline his plan to improve her offensive and defensive bending in repayment for the aid she has given him. He's clearly been very well trained, that much is obvious. He's disciplined, even recovering as he is, Lee is capable of demonstrating the basic forms to her, forms she will have to adapt. Lee showcases a lot of strong, swift movements that're highly technical. While he does flow from one to another, it's obvious that there are different stances, different movements stringed together. In water bending, true water bending, Alasie had been told it is impossible to tell one kata from another, that they meld together as seamlessly as a brook joins a stream. _

_Nonetheless, Lee is a highly trained bender, a very capable one. So Alasie takes his advice on board as she begins to practice. The first thing she adjusts is her stance. She bends her legs a little more, tightens her core, keeps her shoulders relaxed. Water is the element of change and so too must her movements reflect that. She needs to be capable of adjusting on the fly, on moving past an obstacle as water does, of finding another way when the first instance isn't applicable. _

_It is not how she had been planning to learn. Alasie had run away from the Northern Water Tribe not a moment before she turned sixteen. Betrothal age. She refuses to rot away as a wife, locked behind great walls of ice and unable to help the people outside who so desperately needed it. There's a war on and ignoring it isn't going to make it go away. _

_Four months into her travels through the Earth Kingdom, she'd heard a whisper about swap people. Water bending swamp people. That's where she'd been heading, right before she'd got caught up the Ba Sing Se siege. Seeking refuge in an abandoned farm house (please let the owners have fled for safety, please let it not be something more malicious), she'd hunkered down for a few weeks to wait it out. Only, those few weeks had turned into a year and she'd ended up healing all the travellers who passed by, all the while waiting for the seemingly never-ending storm of Fire Nation troops to surrender (please god let them surrender). _

_The avalanche had drawn her attention; Earth Kingdom soldiers dead, burnt to death. Fire Nation soldiers dead, crushed to death. All but one, who had been on his death bed. How she'd managed to keep Lee alive long enough to heal him, Alasie will never know. _

.

_"You're using your arms too much." _

_Alasie pauses, water stretched out before her, glimmering in the morning sun. _

_Lee sits by the bank of the river, parchment held before him and in his hands is shortening stick of charcoal that's slowly shrinking as the days wear on. For a Fire Nation soldier, he has his honour. Promising to help her learn to fight with her element in return for his life, Lee has spent the previous day adapting the forms he knows to suit water bending. _

_"Pardon?"_

_"If your arms are injured or restrained in any way, you're going to be a sitting turtleduck. You need to have a few tricks up your sleeves. Or leggings, as they case may be." For half a second, he glances up at her with those bright gold eyes and an almost sly smile to his face before he seems to remember where he is. Who she is. _

_Having sheered the sideburns off in favour of passing unnoticed, Lee no longer seems so old and imposing. If she had to guess, Alasie would peg him as being her age. No older than twenty, certainly, but she would say eighteen. Maybe nineteen at a push. _

_"Okay. Water bending with legs. I can do that." She thinks._

* * *

**Oh look, more.**

**Tsume**  
**xxx**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

.

**VII**

_Father has surrendered. _

_It seems surreal but even now, travelling as they are, Lu Ten can barely cobble the thought together in his mind. It just doesn't seem to fit, doesn't work. His father is the Dragon of the West, a General in the war. He wouldn't just give up. Not after six hundred days of effort. After so long, nothing could have possibly crushed his father's moral. _

_Other than news of his only son dying in the line of duty._

_He's silent as they troop on through the landscape of the Earth Kingdom, processing everything that they have learnt. _

_They'd had to leave the farm house when a passing soldier had informed Alasie that the Ba Sing Se guards were coming out to assess the damage now that the assault was over. While it was no problem for a water bender to be living off their land (or so he assumed), a fire bender would be a different story altogether. Especially after the siege. Lu Ten would be lucky if his death was a quick one. Should they catch him._

_So, they had left. Alasie states she has always intended to visit the swamps of the Earth Kingdom, though for what reason, Lu Ten cannot possibly fathom. What could be less cultured than the back-water swamps? He would willingly bet half of his inheritance (if it hasn't already been allocated to Azula, the favourite brat that she is) that they drink straight from the swamp water. Lu Ten had agreed to go along with her for two reasons and two reasons alone. _

_One; he has yet to complete his debt. Though Alasie is making progress, there is no way she would be able to fight off a single Fire Nation soldier in her current state. _

_Two… it's easier to travel with a water bender. They're seen as a trustworthy pair by the people of the Earth Kingdom when Alasie is the one to approach the locals first, offering healing in exchange for a place to stay. Though they eye him warily, given his golden eyes and pale skin, nothing is said of it. Undoubtedly assuming he is one of the many results of Fire Nation occupation of the Earth Kingdom. It is a significant step down from his actual status (as low a step as he can take without being identified as someone not of Fire Nation origin) but if it keeps him alive, Lu Ten will live with it. _

_And as they travel, his father's words on respecting other cultures, his lectures of balance war with all that he has been taught at his grandfather's feet._

* * *

Sokka very nearly drops the food he's eating (only nearly, because like hell will he ever willingly surrender a slice of meat to the cold, hard ground) when the two adults burst into motion. Alasie, the water bender his sister may one day become, throws one arm out and forwards, across the expanse of ocean, forcing the water to freeze into an extending pathway. In a quick twist, she's flinging Katara towards him and Sokka shoves the last of the meat into his mouth, scrambling to catch his sister.

"Hey! What do you think…" he trails off, though not because the two adults are already sprinting down the icy pathway. No, it's the giant sea monster that makes him swallow his tongue, actually. Holy shit, that's big. It's bigger than big; it's the biggest creature he's ever seen. And Sokka's seen wild Whale-walruses.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god!" Slapping both his hands over Katara's eyes (because she sure as hell doesn't need to see her air bending boyfriend get gobbled up), Sokka watches with gritted teeth as Alasie and her pet fire bender race across the ocean. The ice bridge would've been real helpful back home if Katara had managed to figure that out, but now's not the time to be thinking about that.

"Aang! Aang! Run!"

"Sokka! What is happening! Let me see!" He takes an elbow to the gut in his efforts to protect Katara's innocence, scrambling to keep her from looking, but he ultimately fails. They both swing around, Sokka having suffered a face-plant into the sand (gee, thanks, Katara) in time to see Former-Muttonchops get launched into the air by Alasie. He's doing something funky with his arms, swinging them back and forth in a jagged circle, but there's not fire so how the hell is that going to hel-

Lightning crackles out through the sky, slamming into the sea beast, the roar of thunder following a moment later. In the same breath, Aang gets his act together, somehow blasting both Alasie and Lu Ten back to the shore and racing there himself. Bloody magic.

"What the actual hell just happened?" Sokka hisses, rubbing at his smarting stomach (thanks again, Katara, see if he ever tries to protect her innocence again) as he forces his abused body into a sitting position.

"Aang! Are you okay?"

His sister's on her feet, racing to the kid Avatar with blatant worry in her frame, even as the two adults roll up to their feet in near unison.

Freaky.

"Aang. I understand that you are the Avatar had house untold power. But can be please get into the habit of checking for any hazards before we do activities?" Alasie asks, magicking the sea water from her body. Her approach, her reprehend, is far gentler than that of the fire bender's.

Lu Ten grabs Aang by the shawl of his weird, orange-yellow shirt and shakes him back and forth, water evaporating from his form and leaving salt streak all across his clothes.

"Damn it, kid. Are you trying to get reincarnated already!"

That's 'round about the time Sokka takes a hit to the back of the head and it all goes black.

* * *

**VIII**

_Alasie delivers a peasant's baby. Lu Ten isn't present for the whole affair, wisely choosing to remain outside of the hut in which the birthing takes place, but the screaming pierces him to the core. It's different from how a man screams as he dies, different from the screams of primal rage and loss. It's one of exhaustion and determination. One filled with more hope than he believes a scream should be. _

_Alasie walks out of the hut washing her hands in a bubble of water. The sight no longer panics him as it once did. _

_"I have seen things that I cannot un-see," she declares, allowing the water to drop at her feet with a lacklustre splat. Over her shoulder, he can see the peasant woman cooing down at her wrinkled offspring. _

_Aunt Ursa had been like that once, back when Azula had been born. He's missed Zuko's birth, off on Ember Island with his father, unknowing that his aunt had gone into labour two months early. Zuko had been very, very lucky to survive his birth; had it been any other family, he probably wouldn't have done. No, Lu Ten had missed the birth of one cousin, but he had been in the palace for Azula's. He'd been one of the first few to see her when Ozai and Grandfather Azulon had finished welcoming her into the world. _

_He can recall quite clearly how Ursa had looked down at her child, that soft, tender emotion he can vaguely remember being housed in his mother's eyes, back before she'd passed on. _

_It's the exact same look that the peasant woman offers her squealing baby now. _

_"Not one for children then?" Lu Ten drawls out, watching Alaise scrape back the long bangs that bracket her cheekbones. Slowly but surely, the back is growing, beginning to even out. Previously, he had wondered what possessed her to get such a wretched haircut. Now, watching the way she so carefully trims the strands that frame her face, he's beginning to suspect it wasn't voluntarily cut. _

_"I've heard it's different when it's your own child," Alasie murmurs, though from the expression on her face, she looks far from convinced. "I'm in no rush to find out though." There're some hidden implications there, some underlying background. Lu Ten's not too bothered. He's only here to make sure Alasie can defend herself in a fight. _

_The second that that's over, he's heading back to the Fire Nation. He's seen war now, has seen the battlefront and what it does to soldiers. He's got some opinions on how things should be done, how the war should be fought. And, looking at these peasants who have asked for no battles, who have just ducked their heads down and tried to get on with their lives, he's got some ideas of how the Fire Nation should be respecting that too. _

_He just needs to get the girl trained up, that's all. If she'd been a firebender, this would be easier. But, had she been a firebender, then he'd also be dead. Firebenders, no matter how impressive an offensive they can unleash, are no healers, after all._

_"What about you, Lee? Any plans of fathering some little flames?" Alasie's dark brown brows wiggle above her eyes, colour slowly returning to her cheeks the longer she spends away from the innards of the hut. _

_He almost answers truthfully. Almost states that he has not thought of anything different because it is expected of him, as the son of the Crown Prince, to have children in his future. _

_But he is not Prince Lu Ten at the moment; he is Lee, Fire Nation foot soldier who had to be rescued by a water bender. So instead, he hums, pulling the straw hat's large brim down to better shadow his eyes. _

_"It's not been in my immediate plans. But, the thought has always been there."_

* * *

Sokka goes down as a closed fan slams into his skull and Lu Ten is instantly on the defensive, stepping before the young Water Tribe teen in the direction the attack came from. He's the fighter here, the only one fully trained and with the right mentality. Trained in air bending he may be, but it's clear the young Avatar doesn't like fighting, that he subscribes to the ways of his people. Given that Alasie has only the training he has put her through and that of the… swamp peoples' ways, it is his job to act as the shield.

By Agni, what would these kids have done without them?

He crisps the next fan, twisting the fire out and around them to block any extra attacks. Alasie slips into position behind him, summoning up a water whip and encasing the back of Sokka's head, searching for damage and healing it. As much as he would like to focus on the downed warrior among them, Lu Ten has bigger issues to deal with; namely, making sure Aang doesn't race off to make friends with whoever is attacking them. He catches the air bender by the collar before he can shoot off on the direction of the enemy, reeling him back in to shove behind him.

"We have no idea who these people are or why they are attacking us," Lu Ten states, eyes scanning the undergrowth. While they are out in the open, no one can sneak up behind them; there is only the ocean and a stretch of beach to their backs, Appa lying upon the sand and offering no assistance against their enemy.

"Fire bender! Do you plan to bring war to our doorsteps?!" The voice that calls out from the treeline may be pitched deep, but Lu Ten has served among enough women to identify one by voice alone. Still, his stance does not faulter; he's served among enough women to know they are also capable fighters. He shudders to think how Azula bends now; she had been a terror enough before she'd even reached ten years old. As a teenager? She'll be talented. Very talented.

"No, wait, we're not here to fight!" Aang bellows back at a volume only air benders must be capable of reaching, even as Lu Ten desperately tries to split his attention between keeping a hold of the wiggling air bender and defending against their hidden enemy. At the very least, they can't be earth benders. There'd have been rock missiles or the ground being turned against them if that was the case. "We came to Kyoshi Island to look for help! It's because I'm the Avatar!" As if to back up his point (and infuriate Lu Ten), Aang finally escapes him with a twist of blatant air bending, the kind that has the former prince of the Fire Nation cringing after years of hiding his own bending before unknowns. He wants to snatch up and shake Aang for being so foolish as the trust that these people will be any happier to see the Avatar (missing through near a hundred years of war) than the would be to see a fire bender.

It would seem, however, that the spirits are with them, for no more attacks come. Instead, there is a soft whisper, a repeat of Aang's title and Lu Ten chances a glance to Alasie and Sokka. He's still unconscious, but Alasie isn't healing any more and no longer looks worried, so the damage cannot be too bad. That, at least, is a relief.

"You're the Avatar?" And he really is going to have to have a talk with Aang about blurting out important information.

* * *

**Erm... I've not been very well and school started again? **

**Tsume**  
**xxx**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

.

**XI **

_They head south, travelling through the Earth Kingdom slowly but surely, dressed in unassuming browns and greens. The colours, Lu Ten is sure, look horrendous on him. Perhaps as awkward a colour scheme for himself as they are for Alasie; her bright eyes clash something horrid with the dull tones of her top._

_"Are we going anywhere specific?" Lu Ten asks cautiously, watching the water bender review the map again. Perhaps he's being led towards ann encampment of Water Tribe men; he knows that, for all the North keep their noses clean and out of the way, the Southern Tribe do have a few boats scouring the waters to make things difficult for them. It's not a great leap of logic to expect the girl to hand him off to them._

_Only, she could have done that back in the Earth Kingdom; the King's men would have no doubt accepted him as a prisoner, especially if they had managed to uncover his identity._

_"The swamp," Alasie admits, twisting the map around to show him. This 'swamp' embodies a reasonable patch of the Earth Kingdom, though Agni only knows why this girl would want to visit a swamp of all places. Lu Ten cannot even begin to hazard a guess._

_He states as much, awaiting some form of explanation. If he is going to teach the girl enough self-defence to last on her own, he'd rather it be done near civilisation. He's lived out of a tent long enough; he dreams of a room with a bed, a place where he can settle and call home for a little while. Just until he returns to his father, to his real home._

_"I've heard whispers that there's plants that move on their own there, ones that keep out the soldiers who try to enter the lands." She doesn't say the Fire Nation soldiers, but she doesn't have to. He knows well enough that his own people are invading this land. He's seen it in the last village they passed through, occupied territory where it had been easier for him to take the lead instead of Alasie. He'd considered sending his father a letter but, the truth of it is, he doesn't know where the man is at the moment. Probably reassigned to some other front as they prepare to take Ba Sing Se again. Sending it to the palace to reach his father is a no-go. Despite the fact he is repaying a debt, settling it as honour dictates… teaching another bender to defend themselves against the Fire Nation may very well be classified as treason. He doesn't doubt his uncle would push for it to remove him from the line of succession. Lu Ten has heard the man proclaim Azula's genius, comparing it to Lu Ten's own achievements often enough for him to connect the dots._

_"I fail to see how that would hold your interests," he admits, even as his eyes trace the map to estimate the distance. It'll be a long few months of travel by foot to reach the place, unless they get lucky enough to find some ostrich horses._

_"Don't you see, Lee?" Alasie tilts her head back to grin up at him, something a little manic hiding in her eyes. "It's plants that are moving and what do plants drink?"_

_"Water." Oh._

_He realises it as he says it. Plants drink up water in order to live; it's why the royal gardens have to be tended to twice a day in order to survive the harsh heat of a Fire Nation summer. They drink up that water and it remains inside of them for use. Water that a water bender who has lived with plants their entire life may be able to bend without removing from the flora._

_And plants aren't the only thing to drink water._

_Lu Ten keeps his mouth firmly shut, not daring to breathe that terrifying thought aloud. It is not something that Alasie has realised, given her enthusiasm for the subject. As the girl goes on about the possibility of learning water bending from a group not embedded in sexism, Lu Ten's mind spins to his history lessons, to the water bending prisoners that had once been kept in his home land, to the one that got free, even though they had no access to water._

_The thought is chilling and he sets it aside for later study._

_Though it's something to always keep in mind whenever he deals with one of the blue-eyed benders from now on._

* * *

"Can we do some more fire bending training now?"

It's first thing in a morning and after their late night, Aang'd forced himself to crawl out of bed not long after the sun had risen. Despite the alcohol he had partaken in during their welcome feast, Lu Ten is wide awake, sitting within his east-facing room with several candles lit before him. The little flames slowly rise and fall with each breath he takes, his legs crossed and arms resting in a meditation pose Kuzon had once shown him. It must be a traditional Fire Nation style; the air bending one he's familiar with it looser, more relaxed.

Lu Ten opens his eyes, turning his head to look at him. In the morning sun, his golden eyes are bright and warm, the same soft gold that Kuzon's had been. It's a fire bender thing, he assumes. The Prince's had been gold too, though his had been more like the metal; hard and cold.

"I'm quite certain you had more than a few girls clambering for your attention yesterday, Avatar Aang. Do you not wish to entertain them?" Even as he says it, Lu Ten's lips twist up in an amused, teasing smile, the kind that has Aang looking away and trying not to blush or grin himself. The thought had crossed his mind; some of those girls were quite pretty and they'd probably be really impressed by his air bending… but that's only because nobody has seen an air bender in a century. Which is why he's here in this room.

Accepting Lu Ten's unspoken invitation to sit down, Aang folds his legs into his meditative pose, glancing to the flames he's not yet capable of bending because it's apparently it's 'all in the breath'. He wonders if Kuzon had to put up with that when he was learning how to bend.

"I… If I didn't know what was going to happen, I think I would have. But… but you said the comet is coming again." The comet that had given the Fire Nation the power to wipe out his people, that had resulted in mass genocide just because the next Avatar was destined to be an Air Nomad. "I, I need to defeat the Fire Lord before that happens." The thought makes his gut clench and flip in distress. He doesn't even know who the current Fire Lord is; back when he'd been in the Air Temple, back before the iceberg, it'd been Sozin. But he's dead now, his son too, probably. A hundred years is a long time.

Lu Ten's palm is warm upon his shoulder, even through the layers of his shawl and shirt.

"Aang. It's only recently that the idea of you, of the Avatar, has even returned. If it causes you such distress, you don't need to worry about the Fire Lord," Lu Ten says, taking in a deep breath before he continues. "Before we found you, Alasie and I were travelling so that I could train myself up for an Agni Kai."

An Agni Kai? It rings a bell, but Aang can't say for certain what it means, only that it's clearly a Fire Nation term, given the word 'Agni' is part of it. The confusion must show on his face, for Lu Ten relaxes out of his meditation, resting his elbows upon his knees, one palm cradling his chin, fingertips of the other hand grazing the floor.

"An Agni Kai is a fire bending duel, a fight for one's honour and is won only when one opponent burns the other. Anyone can be challenged, even the Fire Lord." Even the- oh.

"You were planning to fight the Fire Lord?" Aang whispers, even as hope flares up in his chest that, despite his title as the Avatar, he might not have to do this. He might not have to be the one to end a century long war that he's just not ready for. "But, can anyone challenge him? I mean, he's the Fire Lord, it's not like could've just walked up to him."

"There wouldn't have been many who could stop me, given that Fire Lord Ozai is my uncle."

"Uncle?!" Aang repeats, spluttering slightly, reeling back to inspect Lu Ten's features again. He's never met anyone in the royal family of any nation; the closest he's come would probably be Bumi, who was in line to become the king of a city.

But this raises so many questions; why is Lu Ten helping him, the Avatar, the enemy of his family? Why is he travelling with a water bender when he should be living it up in a palace, far away from the war? And just how is he related to Prince Jerkface (it's Sokka's fault he can't remember the guy's name and he can't call his Scarface, that wouldn't be rude) and the old guy who travels with him? That guy seemed pretty determined to catch him; chances are good, he'll show up again and then how will Lu Ten react?

The questions come spilling out of him and Lu Ten answers them all, patience clear in his tone. He had been fighting in the siege of Ba Sing Se (a siege on the Earth Kingdom capital!) and he'd been mortally wounded. It'd only been because of the good grace of a passing water bender that he'd lived. Alasie. She's saved Lu Ten's life and, to put a long story short, Lu Ten says, they'd travelled together and he'd seen the extend of the war. The repercussions of it. The damage his nation had caused.

"Someone has to try and clean it all up, to rectify the mistakes my people have caused. No one else is ever going to step up to the plate; so, I had to begin preparing."

Just like that, the lead weight it back, sitting in his stomach.

Aang looks at this fire bender, this prince who is willing to go against his family for what is right, in order to help the people of this world and his resolve firms up. He'll have plenty of time to impress pretty girls later. Right now-

"Teach me fire bending. We're staying here for a few days, right? I bet I can get my breathing right by lunch. I am, after all, an air bender!" Aang grins, making a punching motion that he's seen Kuzon and Lu Ten perform on order to shoot fire, though nothing actually happens with him. Not yet.

The soft laugh from the other side of the room has him jumping in surprise.

Sitting on the large bed, Alasie is watching them both with a fond smile and it clicks together in Aang's head. Of course! Travelling together for years and Alasie is very pretty; Lu Ten's in love with her.

He fires the prince a sly smile; Lu Ten scowls at him.

"Lu Ten's in looove~"

"Okay, you smug little tiger monkey, training it is."

* * *

Rinsing the water from her hair, Alasie steps out onto the porch of the little house they have been given for temporary accommodation, eyes fixed on Aang and Lu Ten. They're both stood facing one another, one arm half extended before them with the palm facing upward, the other with the wrist hidden in the elbow of their extended arm, the other palm also facing the sky. In the hand furthest from them, a small flame flickers between their fingers, casting a deep shadow on their knuckles despite the morning sun.

She has little understanding on how Lu Ten can be so active this early in a morning; it's clearly a fire bender thing. Will Aang be the same, given that he is learning fire bending before water bending?

For all that she may have trained with the swamp people, she cannot teach the Avatar. Who knows what impact the clumsy forms she's learnt will have on Aang when they reach her homeland and the actual masters? They may very well laugh him right out of the ice walls. If they even let him in, given that the runaway will be among his group.

Pushing the terrifying thought of returning home aside, Alasie summons up a small trickle of water from the nearby pond, leaving any and all additions behind until a bubble of her element in its purest form hovers between her hands. With a twist of her fingers, she partitions it, approaching the two fire benders. Lu Ten has long since grown used to drinking from a floating bubble; Aang, on the other hand, spends some of his time laughing into the water just to watch the bubbles of his voice rise and pop on the surface, a grin on his face.

"This is so cool, why can't you teach me?"

"Because I haven't learnt from masters," Alasie reminds him, allowing the remaining water to disperse into the air as water vapour. If it had been summer, she might have dunked the duo. However, the cold chill that the first month of winter brings would not be complimented by an outdoor shower. No matter how quickly Lu Ten would be able to dry himself off. "I would, however, recommend visiting the tribe of water benders that live in the swamp once the war is dealt with; their forms and different and quick. Plus, plant bending is a tricky thing to master."

"Plant bending! That's so cool!"

Lu Ten gets that funny face on him again, as he does every time she mentions plant bending. She hasn't managed to determined what the cause of that expression is, even after all the time and experiences they've shared.

So Alasie ignores it, stepping forwards to plant a kiss upon Lu Ten's smooth cheek. She strokes her fingertips down the other one, enjoying the absence of hair that had been present two days prior. Much better than the bristle-scratches she'd grown used to.

"I'm going to restock our food and other necessities. We're also going to have to start looking at the money situation sooner rather than later." Because until a few days ago, it'd been just the two of them. Now, now they've got three kids and a big bison to feed. From the frown on Lu Ten's face, he knows it too.

"I see. Be safe."

She doesn't say that they're on an island that celebrates the Avatar they travel with, for those two words mean something different between the two of them after all these years.

"You too."

* * *

**Second update in 24 hours. Woo-hoo!**

**Tsume**  
**xxx**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

.

**X**

_"Why aren't you leaving?"_

_They're both sitting in a tea-shop, the worn dirt-path occupied by a duo of Fire Nation soldiers. The locals cringe away in fear, the terror in their hunched shoulders, their determined-to-not-look gazes; it's all clear._

_Steam curls up and around his face, the cheap clay cup heating his hands in a way little other than fire can. The swill within the cup is positively foul. He's been spoilt, Lu Ten realises, without even noticing. He's become something of a tea-snob; it's his father's fault. _

_The Dragon of the West is many things and a connoisseur of fine tea is one of them. It's his passion, a simple little side focus that causes no damage. Except for the fact it has refined Lu Ten's taste-buds to the point that he cannot stand to drink this boiled leaf-juice. _

_Alasie downs the stuff as if it is going out of fashion and it is with a near unnoticeable sneer upon his face that Lu Ten pushes his cup towards her. _

_It's not worth drinking. _

_"The tea isn't that terrible," Lu Ten argues, even though he clearly disagrees. It is that terrible; the moment he sees the correct plant or they have the funds necessary, he's buying the supplies and he will brew Alasie a proper cup of tea. One he'd be proud to serve, not this dribble that he's embarrassed to be in the vicinity of. _

_"Not that," Alasie scoffs with a huff, glancing down at his rejected cup with suspicion in her eyes but she knocks it back anyway. The heathen. "I'm talking about your comrades in arms." Comrades in- oh. She's referring to the other fire benders. _

_Lu Ten chances a quick glance at the duo, watches them sneer at the locals, their sharp eyes scanning the lot of them. They pass over Lu Ten and his companion, taking in his familiar colouring first; their expressions change from moderately friendly to disgusted at the sight of Alasie. Probably assuming him one of many outcomes of war given the company he now keeps. Wouldn't they be surprised if he were to walk up to them and declare himself? He wonders how shocked they would be, what kind of faces they would pull. He wonders how he could possibly beat those disgusting looks from their eyes. _

_"You saved my life," Lu Ten finally confirms, raking one hand through his loose hair. It's no longer kept in the traditional top-knot; his unbound hair hides the sharp cut of his cheekbones better this way. He's been reliably informed by the men in his former division that there's something a little too noble, a little too royal about his face; that the kind of thing draws attention. "Honour dictates that I ensure your safety in return." He will not return to his homeland sullied by war. _

_Lu Ten determinedly ignores the state of things, of every town his walks through, of every expression every face he passes by. _

_"No one is ever truly safe in was, Lee," Alasie murmurs, her features soft and expression sad. She's finished with the burnt leaf juice, leaving more coin than necessary on the table top as she stands. "You'd be better of playing body-guard for the rest of my life. Not that I'd turn your pretty face down." _

_She's out on the street before he can gather his wits, half blinded by that smile._

* * *

He's tracked the bison methodically, even as the beast flew further and faster. It's only a matter of time before the rest of his nation is hunting down his prize and Zuko cannot (will not) allow for any others to get there before him. The Avatar is his ticket home, the only way he can redeem himself in the eyes of his nation. The only way he can restore his honour and return to the shores he calls home.

"It's said that Kyoshi Island is protected by a fierce group trained in the ways of Avatar Kyoshi herself," Uncle muses, one hand stroking at his beard while the other cradles a cup of the awful leaf juice. He looks to the nearest soldier, grinning as he adds, "and they're all female."

"We don't have time to sight-see, Uncle!" Zuko snaps, already feeling his temper rises, his hands heating. He doesn't have time to entertain his Uncle's stupid plays and ploys to get him to relax. Not now that Zhao is breathing down his neck, not now that the rest of the Fire Nation's impressive military will already be waking up to the threat that lies on their doorstep.

Even if he is only a kid.

"Prepare the rhinos!" he bellows, stomping along to the brow of the deck, drawing the telescope from his pocket to inspect the island they're approaching. While he hasn't actually seen the bison touch-down upon this spot of land, that the Avatar would stop here for supplies and sanctuary would only make sense. The whole landmass was separated from the Earth Kingdom by a previous incarnation; they will surely welcome him favourable. It's not an island strategically located for them, so the Fire Nation forces have never once thought to conquer it. For the best; with no soldiers there, that means Zuko will be unchallenged as he recaptures the Avatar. He will not be so foolish as to leave securing the boy on his ship to the soldiers this time.

"Nephew. There is little information upon the warriors of Kyoshi in our own records. Perhaps it would be best to approach with caution-"

"There's no time for that!" Zuko snaps, squinting into the lens with his good eye. He can't see the bison, but that doesn't mean the Avatar isn't there. All those trees are good for hiding in, after all. He only needs a flash of orange (a colour no other person would dare to wear in the present) to know for certain his target hides here. "Besides, if the warriors were so talented, they'd be out fighting." Not hiding on their island.

Uncle says nothing but he doesn't have to. It's clear from the low hum in the back of his throat that Uncle disagrees with him but Zuko doesn't have the luxury of time. Not right now. He can't do his research, can't spend the time researching what will meet him on the shores of Kyoshi.

All he knows is that, to succeed, he shall have to expect the unexpected.

* * *

**XI**

_The swamp is just as he would have expected it to be; filled with muck, creatures of questionable breeding, and a heady humidity that does terrible things to their hair. Despite the fact it is tied back in a thick braid, Alasie's hair is already twice it's size and Lu Ten daren't look upon the surface of the river, for fear of what he will find there. And he's not talking about the creatures that may lurk beneath. _

_It's also the first time he has been on a boat since the journey to the Earth Kingdom. The comparisons between both instances are great; the Fire Nation vessel had been a great work of mechanical engineering, powered by burning coal and a well-trained crew. The rinky little boat he sits upon now is made of thin wood and cuts through the water by the will of a water bender. There's less chance of this boat going down than those from his homeland, but Lu Ten is still rather nervous. If Alasie wishes to drown him, she will get no better opportunity than this. _

_"So many bugs," Alasie hisses, swatting another one away with the back of her hand, allowing the boat to carry forwards on the momentum of her previous bending. Lu Ten checks the supplies once again for lack of any other job, ensuring the perishables are at the top and checking the water flasks are within an arm's reach. As unfortunate as it is, he cannot use his bending to keep the mosquitoes away; the flames will only draw the insects and they will not choke to death, given his flames generate no smoke. _

_"Are you certain this is a wise endeavour?" Lu Ten asks, golden eyes scanning the undergrowth for any unnatural movement. There are water benders here, if Alasie is to be believed. He most certainly does not wish to meet them; any bender other than fire is usually on the other end of the battlefield. Alasie is a strange outlier, even if she is one he finds himself inexplicitly welcoming. _

_"I'm not certain of anything. But I could never live with myself if I didn't try to learn. Otherwise, I would have left my home for nothing." Yes. The other countries could say anything and everything about his nation, but they at the very least do not force a person to deny part of themselves. To only teach a bender one sub-section of their element, to make it mandatory that a woman never learns to use the primary aspect of their element; it's disgraceful. More importantly though-_

_"There's something off about this swamp," Lu Ten murmurs, peering that little harder at the bank. It could be a stunted tree, or it could be a person. He's not sure. He's not sure he wants to know. What kind of uncultured civilization they will find here is beyond his imagination. It shall be very strange indeed to consider Alasie the refined one in the nearby vicinity. _

_Come to think of it, he's still yet to educate her on what truly constitutes as tea._

_With a roll of his eyes, Lu Ten tracks the twisting roots of an impressively large tree, inspecting the thick curtain of moss that skims atop the river's surface. Only to find a figure atop the wood that dries all the saliva in his mouth. _

_ "Mum?"_

* * *

A little girl cries of her mother at the exact same time the bells ring out. Lu Ten does not even have to have been informed of exactly what that sound means to hazard a guess. Invasion. He's up on his feet a moment later, leaping out of the window and landing on the roof just in time to see the first batch of flames hit a house. They spread quickly, a fierce orange glow that blazes despite the bright winter's sun. He scans the ground, searching for the girl; her mother has scooped her up and they're just slamming the door of their residence shut now.

For a moment, he bemoans the necessary loss of his armour all those years ago. Though he has been in a fair few fights since Alasie healed him, there's no denying that he'd feel far more reassured going into battle wearing something more than the thin shirt that currently clothes his arms and torso. That he might very well be fighting for the Avatar, the last hope of the people, to escape only makes it that much more important.

Lu Ten races across the rooftops, bolstering his jumps with a flaming kick for propulsion. Alasie should be gathering their things by now; they have protocols for this kind of thing. It's not misogyny, just that, of the two of them, he's the fighter. It's what he specialises in, it's Lu Ten's job to protect their backs, just like it's Alasie's job to heal him. They just don't have the skill set to swap roles right no; he'll never be able to fill the boots of healer, though Alasie may one day join him in fighting, should she get further training.

Though he rather thinks he will never stop worrying about her, even if she were the greatest water bender in the world.

He spots one of the Kyoshi warriors first, busy rolling out of the way of a fire punch. Lu Ten sweeps in, arms already circulating through the air. The majority of komodo rhinos have been trained to remain unfazed in the face of flash-fire. But the thunderous bang of lightning? That's a different ball game altogether.

The cold-fire streaks out from his fingertips, lacing up through the air into the sky, the deafening bang as it tears through the sky jolting the beasts. One rider is unseated a single breath afterwards as his mount rears up and Lu Ten is quick to take advantage, leaping up into the saddle. As he pivots on his feet, he snatches up a dadao sword the soldier hadn't had time to pull, tying it to his own belt once the turn is complete. He blocks the first shot of fire that's aimed at him, twisting the second back on the source, knocking the other bender clean off his mount with the force of the blast. A quick flying kick takes care of the rider that'd been sharing the rhino, leaving the beasts unburdened and less of a problem to the people of Kyoshi.

A bit further up the street, three Kyoshi warriors have gotten the last rider on the ground; his uniform dictates he's a firebender, young too given the way his shoulders fail to fill the shirt. The girls have managed to get him on the ground, but the kid completed a full body spin to return to his feet, flashing fire in the same movement to knock the girls back.

"Hey!" And then, of course, there's Aang who doesn't seem to understand the meaning of subtly and 'it's time to escape'.

Agni damn it, how has his life become that of a glorified babysitter?

* * *

**I don't even have the words for how busy work is at the moment. I've got abotu 20 outstanding messages on here that I'm ignoring and a whole other jobs list. **

**I hate OFSTED prep year. Pray for me.**

**Tsume**  
**xxx**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

.

There's a blast of fire coming at his face, far faster than anything Lu Ten has sent at him in the past few days. Nonetheless, Aang still manages to grab hold of it, manages to split the flames in half and forcibly pitch them back and behind him. It's the first move Lu Ten had shown him, how to deflect a full-frontal attack; this way, he doesn't lose any momentum and, if in the figurative instance he was running forwards, he could even use the flames to propel himself faster. Not that, as an air bender, he needs that.

The look that Jerkface wears is just too good and Aang laughs, hand still held before him because he's not a total idiot and this is still a fight.

"How's my form?" he asks and he knows Lu Ten would have clocked him around the head for the cheek but he just can't help himself.

The prince exhales, fast and furious through his nostrils and steam billows out. Man, that's cool; he'll get Lu Ten to teach him that next.

"How did you do that." And for a fire bender, his voice is positively frosty. He was right about the eyes the prince has, all hard gold, cold and unyielding.

"Well, I am the Avatar."

Perhaps it's the hard eyes, perhaps it's something else. Either way, Aang feels the need to tease him further. It's a bad habit but Aang doesn't really care. He's the Avatar, he's got to dedicate his life to the world but, it doesn't mean he can't keep a few vices. And, for an air bender, teasing is rather harmless. Though he's pretty sure Monk Gyatso would have drawn a line at taunting an angry fire bender. There's probably so kind of proverb out there to do with it all but, for the life of him, Aang can't recall it.

"How did you learn fire bending!" The prince roars, leaping forwards and shooting off two hot jets. It's too much for Aang to fire bender right now, beginner as he is, so he ducks and rolls, springing up with good old-fashioned air bending. He hates that he's the last one, hates it with every core of his being in a way he hadn't known he could hate before the iceberg. Yet, it has done one good for him; no one knows how to fight an air bender. No one expected his moves, expects his attitude. And you have to respect the unexpected, otherwise you lose.

Aang twists and flips, snatching up two fans that one of the Kyoshi warriors must have dropped. On his next twist, he pulls at the air current, transferring them with his improvised weapons in order to blast the prince back and away. He goes tumbling away with an angry grunt, the breath knocked out of him, slamming into the already weakened structure of one house that looks like it's been on fire. Only, how's it been put out?

Aang startles as a hot hand clamps down on his shoulder, the palm almost covering the entire curve. Man, Lu Ten either has big hands or Aang's skinnier than he thought he was.

"Get going, Aang. I'll sort this. Just make sure to swing Appa down here low enough that I can jump on."

"Alright! Thanks, Lu Ten!" Ducking out from under the man's hand, Aang fires one unsure look over his shoulder in the direction he'd launched the prince before he takes off down the street. Even if Lu Ten can't make the jump up onto Appa, Aang can always… give him a boost.

* * *

**XII**

_He's out the boat before Alasie can even stop him, can even call out that he must be seeing things (why would a Fire Nation woman be in the Earth Kingdom's largest swamp, why would he think he could see his mother here?). Is there some kind of hallucinogenic in the water? In the air? Alasie summons up a pure slither of water, encasing her torso within it. But there are no poisons to draw out through osmosis. So, it cannot be a substance causing this._

_Perhaps Lee is just unstable? He had been fighting in a war, who knows what kind of ordeals he's seen. Though there has been little evidence of it prior to now, there's every possibility he has soldier's heart and Alasie curses herself for not having realised it before. She leaps out of the boat, skating over the water's surface on unsteady legs, some of her element leaking into the soles of her boots._

_She's too slow._

_By the time she manages to scale the tree branch, Lee's gone, nothing but the absence of his tall figure and the symphony of a thousand insects offered to her._

_It is only as she goes to adjust a bag that's no longer there that Alasie recalls the boat. It's easy enough to bend it over to her, to summon up a simple water tendril to carry their supplies up to her. They're heavy bags, especially Lee's. She hadn't realised how much more he was carrying than her; it makes sense, he's male and particularly muscular. She's not exactly well practiced in carrying heavy things for a long time._

_It would seem, however, that she has no choice at this current moment in time._

* * *

Shoving the burnt wooden planks from his body, Zuko plants his hands under him, pushing back up onto his feet. How the hell did his great-grandfather fight against the air benders? True, he had the power of a comet on his side, but that still wouldn't have made their attacks overly visible. He has to look for the smallest shift in the air to know where it's coming from, that or follow the lines the kid's body forms as he twists to hit him. Even then, there's still a good chance that he won't get the direction of attack right until it's too late and the air has already slammed into him.

It's once he gets on his feet that he sees the source of the Avatar's sudden fire bending ability.

The rest of his crew are down, the rhinos without riders, and there's a man standing alert in the street. His arms are raised in the traditional fire bending stance, though his foot is loose, more modern.

"You. You're the reason the Avatar knows fire bending." His innards burn and boil at the thought, acid in his mouth. This man has abandoned them, abandoned the Fire Nation and I actively helping the enemy, is actively teaching the Avatar fire bending. It's probably one of the biggest instances of treason that Zuko has ever witnessed.

"He needs to learn. This war needs to stop. Surely you, young as you are, understand how many senseless lives are dying for a country that betrays them?"

'_Those soldiers love and defend our nation! How can you betray them?_'

For a single moment, Zuko forgets how to breathe. He's suddenly back there, back in the war room, with the generals all eyeing him, with the Fire Lord's cold wrath pressing heavy against his shoulders. Even if he hadn't recognised it for what it was at the time.

And this time, when he looks at the fire bender who teaches the Avatar now, there's a cutting familiarity to his features. He knows this man, Zuko realises, he knows him well enough to recognise his face but he can't, for the life of him, put a name to it.

But he should be able to. He should recognise this man, even if he is years too old to have been one of his old playmates, back before Father had taken the throne.

Then the fighting beginnings anew.

It's different fighting another fire bender; Zuko knows most of the moves, he knows how fire behaves. Unlike the air, he can deflect it, can turn it back on the source. The only issue is, this man's clearly a master. And he's experienced combat. True combat. Not just spars, not just practice duels. The gap in experience between them is dismally clear and, much to Zuko's mounting horror, he knows he's going to lose this one. With the Avatar on the ship, he'd just managed to slip through his fingers at the last moment. But this, this is going to be a true defeat.

How is he supposed to capture the Avatar if he can't beat another fire bender! How is he supposed to succeed when Uncle insists on drilling him only in the basics!

There's a low groan above them, Zuko's head snapping up at the same time that the other fire bender chances a glance to the sky. The bison is swinging in low, the Avatar sitting up its head and the two from the Water Tribe in the ba- no, wait, there's three of them now. An adult woman who leans over the side, one arm stretching out.

Zuko is going to stop them, is going to blast a sharp jet of fire right in the bison's face (even if he'll feel bad about it later).

But then, the Avatar calls out a name and he just… stops.

.

He makes his way back to the ship, having revived his soldiers to give chase to the Avatar. But it's all done in a daze, a haze of movement in which he doesn't think, doesn't even consider the future beyond the immediate revelation he has just suffered. It makes perfect sense now; how he could recognise the man's face, how the man's bending style was long-familiar despite its evolution through the years they've been separated. He even had the same half-dimples. Because it's his cousin.

Lu Ten is alive. And Lu Ten is teaching the Avatar.

Zuko doesn't speak as he storms onto the ship, not even to order to crew to give chase. They know him well enough by now, know that the Avatar is the goal (the only goal). He wouldn't be able to handle giving orders now, hunched over on his bunk as he is. He should be focused on tracking the Avatar, on predicting his next move, on planning how to capture the kid.e sHe

But all he can see in his mind's eye is the same scene over and over again. The Water Tribe woman reaching out. The fire bender, his cousin, slipping his hand into hers and getting pulled up and off his feet, onto the bison. The smile on Lu Ten's face as he joined the Avatar in his grand escape. And, and it's panic inducing because that's his cousin. The former heir to the Fire Nation who died at Ba Sing Se but didn't because he's still here. Here teaching the Avatar fire bending. The Avatar that he is chasing down with Uncle-

With Uncle. Uncle who doesn't know cousin Lu Ten is alive.

Reports of Lu Ten's death had destroyed Uncle; he'd spent years piecing himself back together.

He's the only family Zuko has at the moment.

But, Zuko thinks with a thundering heart and shaking limbs. But if Uncle finds out Lu Ten is alive, he'll leave him. He'll go after his son and maybe even become a traitor to the Fire Nation too. And Zuko, Zuko wouldn't be able to keep going then. All he's got is his goal and Uncle. He doesn't know if he can keep going on only one of those.

Yet, how could he not tell Uncle that his son is still alive? He owes that much to him, knows it is the right thing to do.

But he'd thought standing up for those soldiers had been the right thing to do too.

* * *

**XIII**

_It takes a day and a half. A day and a half of struggling with too much equipment, a day and a half of carefully rationing water as she gets further and further from the river. A day and a half of worrying that she may very well have lost Lee in this great expanse of flora._

_But she finds him._

_He's curled up against the base of a large tree, hair in utter disarray and head buried in his arms. Her heart goes out to him; she's relatively sure she heard him whisper 'mum' before he took off and there's something about this forest. She's been seeing things out of the corner of her eye, shapes and figures that've made her question but she's forced herself to keep going, to keep chasing after Lee. The human body can survive three minutes without air, three hours without heat, three days without water, and three weeks without food. The first two were no issue, so she'd been working to a three-day limit for finding her run away patient/teacher._

_Dropping the bags to the moss-coated earth, Alasie jogs over, near slipping on the open stretch but she manages to get to Lee's side. She drops down next to him on her knees, summoning a stream of water from her pouch, circulating it around her hands before gently pressing it to the side of Lee's head._

_It's roundabout now that he looks up, molten gold eyes surrounded by red-rimmed skin as he takes in her sudden appearance._

_"Alasie?"_

_"Lee," she breathes, all relief and mounting fury behind her stomach, "don't run off again." For La's sake, don't run off again. She's pretty sure she can't cope with that level of stress._

_"Lu Ten."_

_"I- what?"_

_"My name," Lee-who-isn't-a-Lee says, leaning his head back to better rest his skull upon the trunk. "It's Lu Ten. I'm sorry I lied to you."_

_"Well, Lu Ten and friend. Might I ask why you're in my swamp?"_

* * *

**Horrar! 2nd update in 24 hours.**

**Tsume**  
**xxx**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**XIV**

_'The water bender that saved you. I will never not be grateful to her.'_

_His mother's words keep ringing in his mind, won't leave even as he stands now between Alasie and the heathen from the swamp who had snuck up on them. _

_'I will never not be grateful to her.' _

_It's absurd, but it almost sounds like his mother likes the water bender. Likes Alasie. His mother, a proud Fire Nation noble who'd been gentle and good and his father's whole world. The very pinnacle of what his people should strive for. And Lu Ten, Lu Ten is at the nadir of his life right now, lost in a swamp with only the enemy for company and relying upon the good graces of the healer. _

_"So, this place is like a spiritual hub?"_

_"That's right, little lady," the swamp dweller speaks, having not yet introduced himself as he guides them to a boat of… questionable quality. If Lu Ten were to guess, he'd say water bending is the only thing keeping the vessel from sinking. "We get a whole lotta that spiritual energy and it comes to be in visions of the future and past. Sometimes, one or two lucky folks even see some spirits." _

_Lu Ten wouldn't exactly call seeing spirits a stroke of luck. Especially not when he considers all the tales his father has told him about them. _

_Was his mother just a vision then? Just a construct of what his mind wishes to witness? But then, why on earth would he want his mother to approve of his current company? Because her gratitude towards the water bender would be just that, his unconscious mind projecting the fact it is okay to accept her as a whole person. It comes with uncomfortable implications; if Alasie is to be held to the same standards he has for his people, then she should be receiving the same treatment. Attack his own people is wrong. Trying to fit Alasie into that category implies that attacking the Water Tribe is wrong. And that… that goes against everything he has ever been taught. _

_"-like ya' City Boy here. He's seen sommet the swamp wanted ta' show him, right?" _

_Lu Ten clamps his hand around the man's hand before he can rest of his arm, chest tense. A swamp dweller who can bend the water within a plant is only a small step away from a water bender who can control the water within a human body. He does not want that person touching him. _

_"It's none of your business," Lu Ten states, jaw clenching, the muscles coiled beneath his cheeks. He's here to repay his debt to Alasie and that is it. He certainly has no intention of getting bogged down in what these rustics no doubt try to pass as culture and he shall most certainly be making his own food given this one's standards of hygiene. _

_The distaste must show on his face, for Alasie takes one look and has to turn away from him, one hand to her mouth and shoulders shaking with supressed laughter. Should she eat the same as these people, he doesn't expect her to last the week. _

_It's exactly why he's here._

* * *

"Why the hell is that Zuko guy following us?!"

Lu Ten's head slams against the large pot that the Water Tribe siblings had thoughtfully brought along but, after hearing that, he doesn't care.

"Zuko?" he repeats, watching as the two turn to look at him. Alasie- Alasie knows who he is and, consequently, knows exactly who Zuko is to him. But she has never seen the current Prince of the Fire Nation. Even Lu Ten hasn't seen his baby cousin in years.

Where the _fuck_ did he get that scar?

"So that's his name!" Avatar Aang cries, slamming a close fist into the palm of his hand, grinning the whole while. As if it's a conundrum that he's been struggling with for some time and has only now found the answer.

"Does- do you know Zuko, Lu Ten?" It's Katara that speaks, all hesitance and caution in her voice. Were it any other person, Lu Ten would have laughed and calmly explained that, just because they are from the same nation, it doesn't mean that every Fire Nation citizen knows one another. He cannot fault her for the thought; from what he's heard of the Southern Water Tribe, they are down to a single village where everyone does, in fact, know each other.

But this is different. This is Zuko.

Carefully reseating himself upon the saddle, Lu Ten draws the dadao that he intentionally borrowed, weighing the blade in his hand. It's a good sword, not like his first one was, but it'll certainly serve its purpose. He hasn't held a sword since the Siege of Ba Sing Se.

Alasie slips her hand alongside his, tangling their fingers together, the soft skin of her palms smooth against the rough callouses of his own. She squeezes for a moment, a solid show of support that Lu Ten isn't ashamed to admit he needs.

It doesn't matter that he's now the Avatar's fire bending master. His past still hounds him, no matter how much he tries to shake it off.

"He's my cousin."

There's a moment of stunned silence as the trio of children look between one another in shock. Aang, by way of being the only one to have not yet lived through a life of war, is the first to get over that particular bombshell with a simple shrug of his shoulders. Sokka… not so much.

"He's your what?!"

* * *

Aang feels… uncomfortable, listening to Lu Ten's story. How he outlines the beginning of his life (the son of the heir apparent, the dead mother, the happy childhood), how it descends into the warfront (fighting in the Siege of Ba Sing Se, watching the Earth Kingdom people but not wishing to acknowledge them, to think about what he has been taught). Then, then he gets onto the part where he meets Alasie.

He's surprisingly cagey about the past from there, summing it all up with a sharp, "I followed the water bender who saved my life and it opened my eyes. That's why I am here instead of following Zuko onto that boat."

There's a stifling silence from then on; Katara spends her time frowning while Sokka scowls and refuses to look at either of the adults with them. Aang…

Aang doesn't understand.

Sure, it's a bit weird that Lu Ten's literally related to the guy he's apparently fated to take down, but…

'_I was training for an Agni Kai_.'

But Lu Ten's a good guy. He's trying to do the right thing, even if it means going against the ideals of his own family.

"Well, I'm glad you're my fire bending master," Aang declares, stepping back and off Appa's head, trusting his beloved partner to continue steering them right. He drops down beside the man, leaning into his lovely warm side to soak up the heat that just seems to pour off him. Man, it's no wonder that Alasie is always plastered to Lu Ten's ribcage; this kind of heat is delightful!

Lu Ten pauses, twisting to look down at him with furrowed brows, lips pressing together into a thin line that tilts ever so slightly at the edges in an upwards curve. He doesn't say anything, but the way his shoulders relax, the way he moves is arm so that Aang can get that bit closer to the body heat the man is giving off; it's all a clear sign of his appreciation for what Aang has said.

Yeah, this guy might be the nephew of the Fire Lord. But he was already trying to do something about the Fire Nation before Aang even came along. As far as he's concerned, that proves he's trustworthy enough. Katara and Sokka'll see that, he just knows it.

* * *

**XV**

_Alasie is… worried. The way Lu Ten (she'd had a feeling Lee wasn't the right name, was just too small a name for the man she had saved) keeps glancing at something from the corner of his eye, the way he looks about the swamp as if… expecting someone is concerning. _

_"Your friend has been touched by the swamp," Huu, the master water bender who lives here, muses. While the shocking lack of decency here would usually make Alasie very nervous indeed… she just cannot allow it to hold her back. Not when she might learn how to better defend herself, how to work as a true water bender here. It is an opportunity she never had at home; one she would never be able to strive for. But here, here she can do just that. Here, she can learn to control her element as she should be able to, as she would have been able to by travelling to the South Pole, had the Fire Nation not ransacked it. _

_Alasie glances to Lu Ten again, gnawing at her lip in worry as he runs a hand along the bark of a tree. He's been distracted and distant and the healer within her worries. The warrior she could have been had her people not been so drowned in their tradition, she screams. _

_"Will he be okay?"_

_"Sometimes, the spirits are reaching out. All we have to do is let them in, let them guide us. Don't worry, Little Lady. Perhaps this is just the spirits of his people reaching out to him, perhaps this is about the balance of the world. Now, I'm no master with ice or snow, but plant bending? Now that, I can teach you."_

* * *

Uncle didn't believe him.

Zuko sits in his quarters, the ship already ploughing after the bison they are once again trailing behind but, for the first time in three years, his mind is not consumed by the thought of the Fire Nation's greatest enemy. Instead, it whirls with the thought of his cousin alive. Lu Ten, the boy that had always taken time out of his day and duties in order to play with him, to train him in the fire bending basics. He'd been the one to teach Zuko how to use a sword, who'd told him tall tales of ancient fire benders and their friendship with dragons.

Lu Ten had been like an older brother and then he'd been gone. The first to disappear, next grandfather and mother. The loss of him had broken Uncle.

Only, he's not lost anymore.

Zuko knows it in his bones, knows it as well as he knows the flames he can call to his palm, knows it like he knows his own face. That had been Lu Ten. Lu Ten who hadn't recognised him (how could he; he'd never expect to see Zuko outside the Fire Nation, would never expect the shame that covers half his face) , Lu Ten who had defended the Avatar and escaped away on the back of the flying beast.

He hadn't recognised the woman that was with the group; she can't have come from the Southern Water Tribe; Lu Ten had most certainly not been there and there had been a familiarity between them.

His cousin, who had been pronounced dead in the aftermath of an earth bender induced landslide, had reached for her. His cousin trusted her.

Water benders could heal, couldn't they? Was it possible one of the enemies had saved the life of his cousin? If so, it'd undoubtedly been a ploy to install something sympathetic to their people onto the throne. But… Lu Ten is strong. He'd never bow to another's will, would never have given up. It'd been his cousin who encouraged him to keep going, to keep training, even as Azula steamed ahead.

His cousin who is now with the Avatar.

It keeps coming back to that, the same thought spinning about in his head but what else can Zuko do, other than sit and obsess. His cousin had been a good prince, had been loved by his people. The only reason the Nation hadn't mourned him as it should is because Grandfather had died a mere handful of days afterwards; dead Fire Lord took precedence. Not that anyone had liked the man more than Lu Ten, that is. Other than Zuko's own father, but he tries not to dwell on that thought. No, instead he fixates on his suddenly living cousin, his uncle who doesn't believe him, who had walked away with shaking hands and shoulders, right after claiming that Zuko's emotions must have clouded his judgement.

But it hadn't. Zuko knows what he has seen. Lu Ten is with the Avatar. And right now, that's just another reason why they need to hunt them down. Nothing else matters right now, other than this. It's a good thing Zuko doesn't know the meaning of the word quit.

* * *

**Err... Merry Christmas? **

**Tsume**  
**xxx**


End file.
